Preface - Forty Years On - 2014

This is a draft manuscript of a book 'In the Light of Knowledge' that I wrote forty years ago, in 1974, under the instruction of Satpal (Bal Bhagwanji), the eldest brother of Maharaji, Prem Rawat.

If you do not know who Maharaji/Rawat is, there are some informational sites here, here, and here. I was a dedicated follower of his for thirty years, from 1970 to 2000, which I write about on my website and in my book Without The Guru.

In the early 1970's, any intellectual underpinning for Prem's message was weak, and in fact was actively discouraged. Satpal did not agree with this, and commissioned me to put his younger brother's message on a scholarly and rational footing. This manuscript is the result.

However, by the time it was completed, the 'holy family' had split, with Satpal setting up as guru himself in India, and Prem remaining in the West disowning him. As a consequence, since my book was written under Satpal's direction, it was considered the work of the devil and most copies of my manuscript were burned.

I did not see my manuscript again until 2008, when my friend Anth Ginn (who was one of the original burners) found a copy in Germany and graciously mailed it to me.

In reading it again, and preparing it for the web with Tom Gubler's help, I want to make these points with the benefit of forty years' hindsight:

First and foremost, I do not agree now with what I wrote then. The purpose of the book was to 'prove' that we need Prem's message. I now hold strongly that we do not 'need' that message. In fact, I am deeply embarrassed by much of what I wrote, and in editing it for this site I have cringed many times.

Apart from my thoughts on Prem's message being opposite to what I thought then, the work now seems to me immature in parts (well, it was forty years ago). Some of the philosophical sections are weak, and of course all my cutting-edge scientific arguments of the day are now very dated.

I wrote recently to Tom that as a rule of thumb you can take anything I say in the book and assume that I now think the opposite. That is over-generalised, but even so it is not quite correct. I think now that the endeavour to find meaning and value in everyday life is a good thing, if done right. I am currently writing a book to explain what I mean by 'right' in this context, but certainly following Prem Rawat is not doing it 'right'.

Style

Being written in 1974, I use 'man', 'mankind', and he/his/him for both genders, which I would never do now.

The book was thoroughly researched, with all quotes sourced and referenced. Unfortunately, my notes are now lost. They were very detailed, and included a lot of material not in the main body of the book. I have decided to keep the note numbers in the text, in square brackets [like this], even though you cannot follow them anywhere. They at least give an idea of how meticulous I was.

I wrote the book in England, and it is written with British English spelling and grammar.

I thank the following:

Glen Whittaker, then the General Secretary of Divine Light Mission UK, who provided all the support services for the book. In particular, he placed me in the Luton Ashram to write it, and found secretarial staff. In a recent (2014) email, he tells me he does not remember doing so.

Malcolm, the secretary of the Luton Ashram, who made me welcome, giving me the best rooms in which to work, and discussing the book with me. I thank also the Luton ashram residents of the time for providing me space in an already overcrowded house (typical of ashrams at the time), and the housemother Myra for holding it all together.

Penny, my main typist, who worked very hard on the manuscript.

Dr Jerry Ravetz and his wife, the first premies and academics to review the book.

Anth Ginn for finding the one and only remaining copy of the manuscript and returning it to me.

Tom Gubler, who scanned in the manuscript, and turned it into text (244 pages in the original). He also proof-read, and provided helpful comments. This digital copy would not have been created were it not for him, and the typewritten pages would have remained moulding in my bottom drawer. Tom has written his own introduction to the book.

Finally, if anyone wants the PDF scan of the original typed manuscript, contact me or Tom.

Preface - Original 1974

Two points need to be made if this book is to escape more condemnation than it no doubt merits.

Firstly, it is not a book about Guru Maharaj Ji and his message; rather it is a book about how we need Guru Maharaj Ji and his message. Thus it is not primarily a biography of Guru Maharaj Ji, nor a description of his activities and those of his followers, nor is it an investigation of what in fact his message really is. Although all these are dealt with, they are done so only to the extent that they support and are relevant to the central thesis of this book - that we need that which Guru Maharaj Ji is giving.

Secondly, this theme is pursued in a hopefully easy-to-read style, but it is nevertheless based on a reasoned and fairly rigorous argument. Thus the book is an ambitious attempt to cater for two types of reader at the same time the 'general' (but intelligent) reader, and the 'intellectual' reader.

The existence of this connecting single thread of argument running through the book also means that one cannot select parts from it and read them in isolation from the rest of the book. This is particularly important to note with respect to Part Four, in which Guru Maharaj Ji and his message are briefly discussed, but only in connection with what has gone before.

London 1974

Contents

Part One - The Problem: A World Of Difference

1 - The Starting Point - "Unpeace"

Most people die before they are born. Our physical birth, in the conventional sense of the term, is but the start of a continuous process of being born, which is seldom completed before we die.

The change from the womb to the outside world at the age of 9 months is certainly important, and often dramatic; but nevertheless it leaves the infant unchanged in many respects. The baby is as completely dependent as it was in the womb for outside assistance, requiring to be fed, protected and looked after completely. But the process of birth has not stopped; as the months and years go by, the baby becomes aware of his surroundings, learns to react to them and to co-ordinate his movements. In doing this the baby dies, and the child is born. He learns to talk, and begins to understand relationships between human beings, and the relationships between himself and his environment; and in so doing his childhood gives birth to youth. Then is learnt love and the power of reasoning; and youth gives birth to adulthood. But the process of birth does not stop there; for every situation we find ourselves in forces us at some point to change and evolve.

We are unable to live static and immobile lives, but are impelled to continually grow and develop, always being born to new forms of consciousness, fresh understandings and different states of being.

We live constantly in a condition of unrest, which is sometimes very violent and yet at other times remarkably gentle. Every action we make, from the flicker of an eyelid to writing a lengthy philosophical thesis, is born out of the conflicts of a changing situation, either biological, psychological, or social. Nothing ever remains totally satisfactory for us for very long; whenever we think we are completely content, it is the very nature of our human condition that discontent creeps in, and we find ourselves forced to take action, to do something, to become a little bit more born.

This is particularly true in our own time. Boredom, monotony and loneliness all take their toll; philosophers are beginning to call this age, the age of meaninglessness.[1] Our culture seems to have been running at a heavy loss for at least a hundred years, and we see ourselves depersonalised, living in the inhuman world of concrete jungles. There is in our society a great urge to escape - we try to lose ourselves in drink, drugs, television, hooliganism and any one of thousands of diversions and pastimes manufactured for us and enticingly dangled in front of our noses.

vi) Conclusion

To conclude this section on superspace, it should he pointed out that all of the theories mentioned here (General Relativity, Geometrodynamics, Bootstrap etc) could be disproved in the future. However, it seems certain that any alternative theories will have to use the concept of superspace; so it is immaterial whether the details we have gone into here are proved to be valid or not - what is important is that science is forced to describe so many phenomena in this world of difference in terms of non-differentiated superspace.

Indeed, some physicists have not seen any need to limit superspace to only four dimensions. Why four? Why not five dimensions? Six, seven...infinite. Why not have a superspace consisting of an infinite number of dimensions? The point is that with our 3-d viewing mechanism superspace is completely and utterly unintelligible to us whether we say that it has four dimensions or an infinite number of dimensions. So for our purpose there is no need to specify the number of dimensions it has.

Of course, many scientists object to speaking about superspace as a thing, an entity; they insist it is only a mathematical description. That science has not 'proved' the physical existence of superspace is true; and from what we have said earlier, it is impossible for science ever to do so, for we have shown that discursive thought can only rearrange difference or the 'diverse' and never go beyond it. What is so revealing is that science, in using tools of difference to understand difference has to explain some observed phenomena by talking as if there is something completely transcending difference. Apart from giving this 'something' a name (superspace), we can never understand it or even conceive of it with the tools of difference and diversity, such as the intellect.

It follows from this that the true Knower of the One must have infinite compassion and Love for everybody. Rather than be immersed like a vegetable in his own private bliss and finding peace, he sees that all creatures are in the One and thus he cannot but help Loving them in the true sense of the word. For just as we have to act in accordance with separateness when in the diverse, so we have to act in accordance with unity and Love when in the One.

Of course, the Knower has to act in his body as if there were separateness, at least on a physical level, otherwise he could not move or act at all, since as we have seen all motion depends on separateness (Chapter 2). But he knows that the unity is more basic and fundamental than the separateness whereas the person conditioned by the diverse sees it the other way round.

Thus the Knower of the One lives a life concerned with helping others and eradicating the sense of separateness in them as much as he can. In other words, he manifests actively that Love which he has fund in the One, living an active life rather than one of selfish self-satisfaction and self-effacement.

I do not preach a doctrine of extinction! (Huang Po) [39]

Nothing can come from God but...works of Love over all nature and creature. (Law ) [40]

The Spirit of God expires us without for the practice of Love and good works. (Ruysbroeck) [41]

One may not be so given up to contemplation as to neglect the good of his neighbours. (Augustine) [42]

No man reaches the point at which he can be excused practical service. (Eckhart) [43]

Do not permit the events of your daily lives to bind you, but never withdraw yourselves from them. (Huang Po) [44]

If this whole process of 'being born' to fulfil our destiny of finding the One is the most basic and fundamental process underlying our Life, then we have solved in principle the problem of ethics or morality. For a 'good' action then becomes an action which is done to further or assist the process of Knowing the One, and a 'bad' action is one which attempts to hinder or fight against the current of God-realisation which is carrying all creation towards the One. This will be dealt with in Chapter 13; now we will finish this chapter by simply pointing out that the Knowers of the One hold that not only do we in practice seek the One and its attendant Peace, but that this is what we should do; this is what is good and right - evil and sin, on the contrary consist in living in the world of difference and obstructing all attempts to find and follow the way to the One.

All sins are contained in this one category, one turns away from things divine and truly enduring, and turns towards those which are mutable and uncertain (Augustine) [56]

Sin in all shapes is nothing else but the will of man...broken off from its dependency upon and union with, the divine will. ALL the evil and misery in the creation arises only and solely from this one cause. (Law) [57]

We cannot say or think anything about the One, because in the One there is no difference and no duality, and words and thoughts are discursive and can thus only hope to describe the diverse or world of duality. Nevertheless, it is possible to understand intellectually what the One is not. This is reminiscent of Chapter 7, where we found that although no hypothesis could be proved with 100% certainty, we could hold that a wrong hypothesis could be negated with a 100% certainty.

The reader will notice that we have only talked about the One, in effect, in terms of what it is not. We first described the world of difference in terms of separateness, change, duality etc, with which we are all familiar, and then we described the One as negations of these terms - non-difference, non-separateness, unchange etc. The fact that we gave these negative terms positive sounding names (eg One, Love, Peace etc) does not invalidate the fact that to think or say anything about the world of non-difference we have to do so in negative terms.

Aught that a man could or would think of God, God is not at all. (Eckhart) [8]

Something we do know, namely what God is not. (Eckhart) [9]

God is neither this nor that. (Eckhart) [10]

Brahman (ie the One) is to be known as 'not this, not that'. (Shankara) [11]

The reader will remember that we approached the concept of the non-external One by considering that while we could think about and hence externalise all public and private 'objects', we could not think about the 'I' that was doing the thinking.

(The 'I' is) the knower of the activities of the mind and of the individual man. It is the witness of all the actions of the body and the sense-organs. (Shankara) [12]

So we can see from all this that in order to Know rather than just to know, we have to look to the 'I' - that which is non-differentiated and non-diverse. The 'I', by virtue of being non-external is inside us - in fact is us, our heart and essence, and it is to this point 'within' us that we have to look.

Man's heart is the central point. (Shabistari) [20]

Turn to thy heart, and thy heart will find its God within itself. (Law) [21]

Let me know me, Lord, and I shall know Thee. (Augustine) [22]

When you attain to full realisation, you will only be realising the Buddha-Nature (ie the One) which has been with you all the time (Huang Po) [23]

Begin to search and dig in thine own field for this pearl of eternity that lies hidden in it. (Law) [24]

Here, within this body, in the pure mind, in the secret chamber of intelligence, in the infinite universe within the heart, the 'I' shines in its captivating splendour, like a noonday sun. By its light, the universe is revealed. (Shankara) [25]

Do thou all within. (Augustine) [26]

Pray within thyself. (Augustine ) [27]

The finding of the One or the Godhead 'within' is what we have termed 'Knowing'. But note that this Knowing is not discursive, nor depends on any difference, for the 'I' which looks inside for the One, is the One itself. So there is no duality. And for this reason, Knowing is not experiencing - it is union. For experience can only operate in the world of difference and duality, since any experience has at least two parts - the experiencer and the thing experienced. But when the experiencer (the 'I') and that which is experienced are the same thing, the One, then we are in a realm beyond experience - there is complete merging or union.